Thomas More Quotes

59 Sourced Quotes

Now there was a young gentleman which had married a merchant's wife. And having a little wanton money, which him thought burned out the bottom of his purse, in the first year of his wedding took his wife with him and went over sea, for none other errand but to see Flanders and France and ride out one summer in those countries.

Thomas More
See me safe up: for in my coming down, I can shift for myself.

Thomas More
I die the king's faithful servant, but God's first.

Thomas More
The Prince himself has no distinction, either of garments, or of a crown; but is only distinguished by a sheaf of corn carried before him; as the high priest is also known by his being preceded by a person carrying a wax light.

Thomas More
I think putting thieves to death is not lawful; and it is plain and obvious that it is absurd and of ill consequence to the commonwealth that a thief and a murderer should be equally punished; for if a robber sees that his danger is the same if he is convicted of theft as if he were guilty of murder, this will naturally incite him to kill the person whom otherwise he would only have robbed; since, if the punishment is the same, there is more security, and less danger of discovery, when he that can best make it is put out of the way; so that terrifying thieves too much provokes them to cruelty.

Thomas More
You wouldn't abandon ship in a storm just because you couldn't control the winds.

Thomas More
Fare well my dear child and pray for me, and I shall for you and all your friends that we may merrily meet in heaven.
Last letter to his daughter, before his execution

Thomas More
We may not look at our pleasure to go to heaven in feather-beds; it is not the way.

Thomas More
They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of people whose profession it is to disguise matters.

Thomas More
Pluck up thy spirits, man, and be not afraid to do thine office; my neck is very short; take heed therefore thou strike not awry, for saving of thine honesty.
Speaking to the executioner

Thomas More
The servant may not look to be in better case than his master.

Thomas More
This is a fair tale of a tub told of his election.

Thomas More
In the first place, most princes apply themselves to the arts of war, in which I have neither ability nor interest, instead of to the good arts of peace. They are generally more set on acquiring new kingdoms by hook or by crook than on governing well those that they already have.

Thomas More
If the lion knew his own strength, hard were it for any man to rule him.

Thomas More
I cumber you good Margaret much, but I would be sorry, if it should be any longer than tomorrow, for it is S. Thomas even and the octave of Saint Peter and therefore tomorrow long I to go to God, it were a day very meet and convenient for me.
Last letter to his daughter, before his execution

Thomas More
And it will fall out as in a complication of diseases, that by applying a remedy to one sore, you will provoke another; and that which removes the one ill symptom produces others.

Thomas More
This vice [Pride] does not measure happiness so much by its own conveniences, as by the miseries of others.

Thomas More
.. the state of things and the dispositions of men were then such, that a man could not well tell whom he might trust or whom he might fear.

Thomas More
One rule observed in their council is, never to debate a thing on the same day in which it is first proposed; for that is always referred to the next meeting, that so men may not rashly and in the heat of discourse engage themselves too soon, which might bias them so much that, instead of consulting the good of the public, they might rather study to support their first opinions, and by a perverse and preposterous sort of shame hazard their country rather than endanger their own reputation, or venture the being suspected to have wanted foresight in the expedients that they at first proposed; and therefore, to prevent this, they take care that they may rather be deliberate than sudden in their motions.

Thomas More
Yea, marry, now it is somewhat, for now it is rhyme; before, it was neither rhyme nor reason.

Thomas More
To gold and silver nature hath given no use that we may not well lack.

Thomas More
Every man has by the law of nature a right to such a waste portion of the earth as is necessary for his subsistence.

Thomas More
It is naturally given to all men to esteem their own inventions best.

Thomas More
To love God, which was a thing far excelling all the cunning that is possible for us in this life to obtain.

Thomas More
A good tale evil told were better untold, and an evil take well told need none other solicitor.

Thomas More
By reason of gifts and bribes the offices be given to rich men, which should rather have been executed by wise men.

Thomas More
The most part of all princes have more delight in warlike manners and feats of chivalry than in the good feats of peace.

Thomas More
The folly of men has enhanced the value of gold and silver because of their scarcity; whereas, on the contrary, it is their opinion that Nature, as an indulgent parent, has freely given us all the best things in great abundance, such as water and earth, but has laid up and hid from us the things that are vain and useless.

Thomas More
Who does more earnestly long for a change than he who is uneasy in his present circumstances? And who run to create confusions with so desperate a boldness as those who have nothing to lose, hope to gain by them?

Thomas More
Those among them that have not received our religion do not fright any from it, and use none ill that goes over to it, so that all the while I was there one man was only punished on this occasion.

Thomas More